Crumble
by Netbug-Archive
Summary: In which the Hyperforce loses the war. Some spova and chinmay, T to be safe.
1. Part 1: Prologue

A/N: Wow, talk about late to the bandwagon. Heck, is there even a bandwagon in existence anymore? Didn't somebody blow the bandwagon up? Anyways...

This is my version of The Great Shuggazoom War, or whatever you want to call it. It's nothing like how I think the war would actually go, but it's a concept I am incredibly excited to finally write. I feel like I could say a lot more about it after thinking about it so long, but I don't want to cheapen it; best to let the story speak for itself.

Please review! I'm not going to leave a "I won't update until I get _ reviews" or any junk like that, but reviews honestly do motivate me to get the next chapter done more quickly in the sea of things I want to spend my time on. Even simple reviews, like mentioning one thing you liked or how the chapter made you feel, are a HUGE help to me and I read every single one of them.

Thank you, and enjoy the fic! :D

**Crumble**

** Part 1: The War is Lost**

** Prologue**

SP1 didn't thank the driver.

Yes, she had allowed SP1 to board the trailer, but there had been extra space to begin with. Yes, she'd taken SP1 all the way from the other side of the galaxy to reach his destination, but the driver had been coming to this moon anyway. Yes, she'd stopped at traveler's stations providing food and various amenities, but she needed to break periodically for her own sustenance and refueling her vessel. (If anything, she delayed him with her need for entertainment. SP1 was still wondering where those "lugs" they'd seen originated from...)

Fate was the only thing to thank for SP1's arrival, and the driver was simply a neutral cog in SP1's future that needed to turn.

"Thank you."

SP1's black eyes looked up at the driver's side window. The driver lowered the shaded glass to reveal her wrinkled smile. "Excuse me?"

"Thanks for the company! I haven't had a traveling companion since my kid left home. It's been fun!" The driver raised her hand as a casual goodbye before driving off to unload the rest of her cargo. SP1 copied the gesture and the sound that he'd just started to tolerate, the sound of a space truck's horn in his ears, kept the exchange between them active half a second longer.

For company? Thanking somebody who didn't feed you, clothe you, or otherwise protect your endgame in the name of fleeting company?

"Humans are _weird._"

He pushed musing aside; right now, he had to focus on getting down to the planet from its moon. To the planet so many leads had pointed him towards. To the planet he wanted to be the right one, he _needed_ to be the right one or he was going to start screaming something about a wild goose chase.

To the planet that, even from Ranger 7, looked downright _nasty_ from the scars of a war that continued to rage.

To Shuggazoom.

* * *

><p>For one last time, they were all together in the Super Robot, sitting in their circle of egg chairs with a chaotic Shuggazoom playing backdrop on the monitor. The once pastel pink view had been marred with the remains of destroyed formless minions, and the smell of their carnage had long since seeped through the Robot's armor.<p>

"Alright," Chiro said, "does everybody know their jobs?"

Gibson nodded. "Affirmative. But Chiro, are you sure you want to move so close to Skeleton King's castle without the Super Robot?"

Chiro shrugged. "I'll have Antauri with me, and we're just going to see how bad it is. If things get too crazy, we'll just turn back."

"You? Turn back?" Sprx smirked at Chiro. "_Right_, kid. Keep an eye on him, Antauri."

Antauri nodded, and Otto laughed as Chiro tried to defend himself.

"Just... be careful. Alright?"

Chiro blinked at Nova's worried plea, but soon after gave her a thumbs up and his trademark grin. "Of course!"

The young man stood before his team, surveying each one of them. The memories of fighting, traveling, and living along side them superseded his earlier lonely days as a latchkey kid a thousand times over. They'd always believed in him. Always pushed him. Always let him make the final decision, and they would have followed him even if it had meant their downfall.

" Now..."

And finally, he could raise his hand to them with some confidence in his authority.

"Monkeys, mobilize!"


	2. Part 1: Without All Our Pieces

**Part 1: The War is Lost**

** Without All Our Pieces**

"Chiro? Antauri?"

He finessed the dials and spoke into the Super Robot's communication system again.

"Nova? Sprx?"

No good. Otto sighed and stroked his chin. "I'm still getting nothing. Skeleton King's gotta have some kind of dampening... Gibson, what are you doing?"

Gibson didn't turn to face Otto, absorbed with the data on his own console. "I-"

_Rrrrrr..._

Gibson and Otto froze and clung to their stations as the floor beneath them shook with the ground outside. Stabilizers were an energy-using luxury that they could not afford outside of emergencies right now and, like the others before, the most recent earthquake left them both unscathed.

"I'm trying to figure out what is causing _that._"

They waited a moment for aftershocks, and when none came their work took back its priority.

"Chiro! Sprx! Nova! Antauri! Come in!"

He paused for a reply. Still no good. Otto's grip tightened on the dials.

"I... I don't like this. I don't like earthquakes and not knowing if the team is okay after the earthquakes."

He turned to Gibson, who still didn't turn from his work. He might have turned to face his friend if he'd seen that Otto was holding back tears, or he might have become all the more focussed on the space in front of him.

"And I don't like being split up!"

Gibson sighed. "I don't like it either, Otto, but we need to remember what Antauri told us."

"The thing about all of us having our own jobs right now?"

"Yes. _And_ the thing about trusting one another to stay safe."

It wasn't that Otto didn't trust them... He just...

_Otto I... no longer sense Chiro's presence._

_ I pledge myself to a greater power!_

_ We can't just leave her out there!_

"..."

_ We're gonna miss you, Antauri._

"...I just... Everybody's-"

"Alone?"

Otto looked up to find Gibson smirking at him.

"I wasn't going to say alone!" Otto huffed and crossed his arms.

Gibson smiled and turned back to his work. "Good. I'd think you'd know better by now."

Not that Gibson wasn't worried to. Not that Gibson wasn't putting on a face for Otto. Not that Gibson was happy he wasn't by himself because he knew what Otto was trying to get at: how much better they worked with all their pieces as Chiro had rather eloquently put it. Not that thinking of Chiro didn't make Gibson wish he could contact the boy because_ Dear Shuggazoom Chiro is still only a child and Skeleton King wants him dead and if Antauri got separated from him..._

It was just that the last thing the team needed was _another_ idiot leaving their guard station to search for somebody else. In the name of _instinct,_ no less. Gibson massaged his brow.

"You alright, Gibson?"

"Hmm? Oh yes. Just trying to understand a rather frustrating anomaly."

* * *

><p>It was nothing less than a complete and absolute mess in the city's outskirts, and the ooze everywhere made it hard to tell many places apart.<p>

Earlier, Sprx had been able to tell his direction by his distance from the Super Robot, but even that beacon had gotten harder and harder to find. It became something Sprx could squish between his finger and his thumb. After that, a pixel in his ocular interface, which eventually blinked out completely.

And he still couldn't find her, as it neared 48 hours since she'd vanished.


End file.
